Verboten!
Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street
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Verboten!
Directed by Samuel Fuller.
With James Best, Susan Cummings, Tom Pittman.
US, 1959, 35mm, color, 93 min.
Print source: HFA
An American serviceman stationed in postwar Berlin strikes up a forbidden relationship with a young German woman who saved his life. He must also contend with the growing influence of the Werewolves, a group of young nationalists bent on reviving the Nazi movement. Fuller fashioned the film as an indictment of German denial in the aftermath of war, epitomized by his vèritè-style recreation of the Nuremburg trials in which the director assumes the role of narrator.
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Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street (Tatort - Tote Taube in der Beethovenstrasse)
Directed by Samuel Fuller.
With Glenn Corbett, Christa Lang, Anton Diffring.
West Germany, 1973, 35mm, color, 102 min.
English and German with English subtitles.
In this Godardian take on the private eye genre, Glenn Corbett stars as an American agent who travels to Bonn in search of the man who killed his partner. He becomes immersed in a seedy German underworld of drugs and pornography. Due to Fuller's bone-dry wit, it is unclear whether he seeks to celebrate or dismantle the film's noirish conventions, but it is undoubtedly a joy to watch him at his most reflexive, giving sly nods to both Alphaville and Rio Bravo.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Ballad of a Soldier / The Forty-First
Nightfall / Great Day in the Morning
Verboten! / Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street
I'll Never Forget What's 'is Name / The Jokers
Hearts of the World / True Heart Susie
Anna Christie / The Long Voyage Home
Suddenly Last Summer / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Quiet Days in Clichy / Henry and June
The Freshman / The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
The Sheep Has Five Legs / The Law is the Law
Hobson's Choice / Sidewalks of London
I Know Where I'm Going / Outcast of the Islands
An Inspector Calls / The Belles of St. Trinian's
Mother Joan of the Angels / Thérèse
Dawn of the Dead / Strange Behavior
